Asian buffets in our area are getting fewer and fewer. A favorite out in Suffolk County recently closed. We have been going to two on a semi-regular basis - both of which are OK but I was curious to see what Chen's is now like after not going for quite a long time and also how it is attempting to compete with it's directly across the street competition, Global Buffet.
Chen's no longer has a website. I was able to find out that dinner price at Chen's is now $11.99, Monday to Friday, and $13.99 on Sundays. There are no longer any coupons in their advertising but there is a 10% discount for Seniors. We went on a Friday night.
It was not crowded. At one time this buffet was jammed on Friday nights.
We were seated and we went up to the buffet for soup. The wonton soup has the liquid in one hot pot and the wontons in a steamer. I opened the wonton steamer and they looked dry and yellow. I took one and some chicken broth. The broth was very hot - which is a good thing as this buffet in the past had problems with food not being kept hot enough while out. The broth had little taste. I bit into the wonton and it was like biting into a small rubber ball. (This was my experience with several things I chose to eat here.) A lot of chewing of the hard outer noodle wrapper and it went down. My wife had egg drop soup and said it was OK - at least it was the correct color (she noticed the color of the wontons too).
I went up for sushi. The sushi was OK. There was not a large assortment - mostly it was salmon and tuna in various forms. The fish was cut thick. The soy sauce that was put out for it was excessively salty - far more so than regular soy sauce - even from other buffets. There was not much of each choice out - but there was a man at the counter making it to refill. I normally would have taken more of one or another but I did not want to empty the dish of any one of them.
Let's see... I took a dumping. I thought the wonton was like a rubber ball - this was more so. It was thick with hard spots that were impossible to chew. That found its way out of my mouth to the side of my plate. A grilled skewer of chicken was hard. Most of that got left. A scallop on the shell was not a scallop or even pieces of scallop. I would say it was chopped up fake crab = Krab. At least it was chew-able.
Shrimp out of the seafood delight was OK. Chicken out of the Chicken and Broccoli was rubbery. Teriyaki Chicken was OK. I was going to take Pepper Steak but the beef in this looked like dry, hard beef jerky chips (which likely is not something that really exists) but this was not anything one would want to try to bite - and no one was taking any. There were mushrooms in oyster sauce that was dried out. Along the way, someone from the buffet stirred it and it did not look as bad. I took two small mushrooms and they were really sweet from having sat too long in the sauce. I took lo mein and that was the most normal thing I had. It tasted pretty good but again it was sweet - which lo mein is not usually. I was tempted by a roast beef. I started to slice it and the large serrated carving knife was not cutting it. I walked away without taking any. I took some fried rice - it was OK.
I next went up to the grill. There was thick slices of beef - thick enough to be a steak though about three inches (maybe) around. I took two and had them grilled. It was somewhat tasty though it needed salt and I don't usually put salt on food (unless it needs it) but it was tough and chewy. I had to cut it into small pieces to be able to chew it.
Well - one thing that looked tempting when we had walked around the buffet were flat, hot apple pie sealed pockets. I had planned on that for dessert. When we went up to take them they were dried out and burned all around. We went to the dessert bar and took cookies. I also took a small rolled cake - commercial out of the commercial serving package. It was not good and I did not eat it.
I am not sure how they stay in business other than they are less expensive from what is across the street which has gone up in price since it opened. There I find things to eat that are tasty and edible (most of the time). Before I left I could feel the MSG headache coming on - so something I ate had to have been loaded with it. I wondered if it was the steak as it came on shortly after.
SO - Chen's - No. I was hopeful - and disappointed in that.
Chen's Buffet is located at 3056 Hempstead Turnpike, Levittown, NY 11756.
Showing posts with label Levittown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Levittown. Show all posts
Friday, November 30, 2018
Friday, December 08, 2017
Back again to Global Buffet, Levittown, NY
This is a follow up to the several other articles that I have written about this buffet and since it is local, it is only fair to keep this up to date, especailly when things are positive. We went back to Global. We have been back a couple of times since the last article and this last visit was the most positive.
This was a Sunday night. The meal was pleasant. I focused on this as an Asian buffet rather than try to get it to be more than that - even though there is the American meat carvings and a few non-Asian dishes and a taco bar. On two Sunday visits including this one there was lobster in ginger sauce. This was whole lobsters in the shell cut up into small chunks - and on this visit they even cut up the claws which made them much easier to get good pieces of lobster meat out of. What surprised me most - give that this is Long Island and is notorious for huge crowds descending on lobster trays as they are put out at Asian buffets leaving the tray empty almost as soon as it enters the steam table - was that there was none of that. I went up twice to a near full lobster tray and helped myself to several nice chunks of lobster. There is no price increase on Sundays or the weekend and there has not always been lobster here - so if you go, don't automatically expect lobster. Things seem to change a lot here as to what is put out.
There is a section next to the sushi bar of oriental salads and there were some interesting salads there to try. There was a beansprout salad and another salad that might have been artificial crab shredded in a cold white sauce that was more than just mayonnaise and it was tasty.
MeiFun noddles with shrimp was good. The fried rice is decent. The lo mein is OK. Italian sausages sliced in half length wise and grilled with peppers and Onions was OK. I tried the turkey again, and it was much more like turkey should taste - the turkey gravy is thin and could be thicker. It is a turkey breast. I tried a short rib but there was not much meat on it and whatever the sauce they have on it is, takes away from the short rib. So I went back to the Asian dishes. There was a whole crab shell stuffed with a breadcrumb mixture and crab. That was OK.
There are still inconsistencies here. The stuffed baked clams that they used to have are now changed - and that is too bad because the Italian style baked clams that they had were good. I did not try the new ones - it looked as if there was cheese on top of them. There had been pulled pork on the taco bar which made for a good dish just on its own, has been gone for the last visits. Taco meat is now just chopped beef that looks dry. I took Pepper Steak which is a basic Chinese restaurant and buffet dish and it is never spicy - here it is hot and spicy. Maybe you like hot and spicy, but I don't expect Pepper Steak to be that way. Labeling could be better also - what had a sign over it as Beef Stew was Curry Beef. The actual Beef Stew had a sign over it that it was clams. Definitely not clams.
They seem better at putting things out as the trays empty. They need to pay attention to what the signs say above where they are putting them out.
The soft serve ice cream here is very good - much better than many buffets - regardless of the type of buffet. The ice cream is cream and not icy at all. We top apple strudel with the soft serve ice cream and that makes a good desert - though they have a number of other desserts here.
The women who wait on the tables have always been excellent. They make an effort to keep coming over and cleaning away plates and offering refills on drinks. They are all very polite and welcoming.
Will we go back now? More likely that we would have before. As long as it remains as it is right now - and they don't slip back - and/or they don't raise the prices. I have wondered how set their $14.99 price is going to be, especially if they are throwing in lobster every so often. The $14.99 price is just right for this buffet. A higher price would keep people away. And they are not coming in droves now. Don't expect the crowds that once were here for Old Country Buffet. We were commenting on that to each other as we were leaving the buffet. Those coming here are very different from those who came here when this was OCB. There are more older people coming here and some families. Another Asian buffet that we go to on some Sunday nights is generally jammed with a wait for a table - and that is a large buffet. Not here, but that buffet is priced a dollar lower on weekends and two dollars lower on Monday to Friday. Here the price is the same every day for dinner, less for lunch. There are coupons here in local newspapers and coupon mailers for two dollars off each person up to 10 at a table. Of course, the other buffet also has coupons with $1.50 off their lower prices.
At this point everyone is going to have to decide for themselves. I don't know if there are still off nights. So far we have been happy twice in the recent past. I can't say that about before that.
This was a Sunday night. The meal was pleasant. I focused on this as an Asian buffet rather than try to get it to be more than that - even though there is the American meat carvings and a few non-Asian dishes and a taco bar. On two Sunday visits including this one there was lobster in ginger sauce. This was whole lobsters in the shell cut up into small chunks - and on this visit they even cut up the claws which made them much easier to get good pieces of lobster meat out of. What surprised me most - give that this is Long Island and is notorious for huge crowds descending on lobster trays as they are put out at Asian buffets leaving the tray empty almost as soon as it enters the steam table - was that there was none of that. I went up twice to a near full lobster tray and helped myself to several nice chunks of lobster. There is no price increase on Sundays or the weekend and there has not always been lobster here - so if you go, don't automatically expect lobster. Things seem to change a lot here as to what is put out.
There is a section next to the sushi bar of oriental salads and there were some interesting salads there to try. There was a beansprout salad and another salad that might have been artificial crab shredded in a cold white sauce that was more than just mayonnaise and it was tasty.
MeiFun noddles with shrimp was good. The fried rice is decent. The lo mein is OK. Italian sausages sliced in half length wise and grilled with peppers and Onions was OK. I tried the turkey again, and it was much more like turkey should taste - the turkey gravy is thin and could be thicker. It is a turkey breast. I tried a short rib but there was not much meat on it and whatever the sauce they have on it is, takes away from the short rib. So I went back to the Asian dishes. There was a whole crab shell stuffed with a breadcrumb mixture and crab. That was OK.
There are still inconsistencies here. The stuffed baked clams that they used to have are now changed - and that is too bad because the Italian style baked clams that they had were good. I did not try the new ones - it looked as if there was cheese on top of them. There had been pulled pork on the taco bar which made for a good dish just on its own, has been gone for the last visits. Taco meat is now just chopped beef that looks dry. I took Pepper Steak which is a basic Chinese restaurant and buffet dish and it is never spicy - here it is hot and spicy. Maybe you like hot and spicy, but I don't expect Pepper Steak to be that way. Labeling could be better also - what had a sign over it as Beef Stew was Curry Beef. The actual Beef Stew had a sign over it that it was clams. Definitely not clams.
They seem better at putting things out as the trays empty. They need to pay attention to what the signs say above where they are putting them out.
The soft serve ice cream here is very good - much better than many buffets - regardless of the type of buffet. The ice cream is cream and not icy at all. We top apple strudel with the soft serve ice cream and that makes a good desert - though they have a number of other desserts here.
The women who wait on the tables have always been excellent. They make an effort to keep coming over and cleaning away plates and offering refills on drinks. They are all very polite and welcoming.
Will we go back now? More likely that we would have before. As long as it remains as it is right now - and they don't slip back - and/or they don't raise the prices. I have wondered how set their $14.99 price is going to be, especially if they are throwing in lobster every so often. The $14.99 price is just right for this buffet. A higher price would keep people away. And they are not coming in droves now. Don't expect the crowds that once were here for Old Country Buffet. We were commenting on that to each other as we were leaving the buffet. Those coming here are very different from those who came here when this was OCB. There are more older people coming here and some families. Another Asian buffet that we go to on some Sunday nights is generally jammed with a wait for a table - and that is a large buffet. Not here, but that buffet is priced a dollar lower on weekends and two dollars lower on Monday to Friday. Here the price is the same every day for dinner, less for lunch. There are coupons here in local newspapers and coupon mailers for two dollars off each person up to 10 at a table. Of course, the other buffet also has coupons with $1.50 off their lower prices.
At this point everyone is going to have to decide for themselves. I don't know if there are still off nights. So far we have been happy twice in the recent past. I can't say that about before that.
Friday, September 15, 2017
GLOBAL BUFFET X3, Levittown, NY
What happened?!?
I had not intended to write an article but just make a comment on the last article about our third visit to Global Buffet but it just seemed that it needed to be set apart. We had not intended to dine at Global Buffet on this night but we were heading to another restaurant (we don't just eat at buffets) and realized as we got there that they were closed to host a special event, so we decided to go over to Global Buffet.
My experience, in particular, at this dinner shows that Global Buffet at this point is inconsistent. Because we had not planned to dine at an Asian buffet, I decided that I was going to eat primarily American - which has not been a problem on our past two trips. I had planned on sliced turkey with a few other American dishes.
The turkey as unlike it has been on either of our first two dinners here. It was hard to distinguish this turkey from ham. It is in a serving tray next to the ham - each labeled - and the ham had pineapple slices on it - and the turkey did not - though on the outside and the meat both resembled each other closely. If this was turkey it was a cheap, processed turkey breast - a ball that was roasted - evenly brown/black on the outside - the meat was less white than turkey and more the pink of ham. The flavor was slightly salty - like ham. I would just say that this was another ham put out in the turkey tray - but as I say it was not covered in pineapple slices as the ham was. It was not good at all. There was nothing wrong with it but it was not good. Even OCB Turkey which was never a great turkey breast was better than this. After the first slice I decided that I had to find something else to complete the meal.
As I was going around the buffet to see what I would eat, I saw that the pork spare ribs looked different - more like I expect Chinese Spare Ribs to look - and still not in thick red sauce - but definitely covered in some type of thin sweet sauce. I took one of those. I also took a small beef rib. The beef ribs were now sitting in a tray with a thin reddish gravy on them - that was not there the last time. I wondered as I saw the spare ribs if they are reading this site and tried to create the ribs I described in our last article that I find better than the ones I had here on the last visit. These, on this night, were not better - and maybe not as good as they had been. The beef rib was better without any sauce on them.
So onward, to the next trip up to the buffet and I went to a tried and true choice from visit one and visit two - beef stew. Oh boy! It looked right. One bite of beef and it was spicy. At best that I can identify the spice I would say the stew sauce was full of curry. In the past few years my stomach has become sensitive to anything that is spicy and I knew if I continued to eat this I was going to have a problem. I tried a piece of potato from the stew - same taste of curry. What did they do? Did they change the recipe? If so, why? One possibility - the beef stew and the chicken curry sit in trays next to each other. Did someone mix the sauce from the curry into the beef stew? There was too strong a taste of spice for it to have been just the curry serving spoon finding its way from one to the other. I went back to look at the beef stew tray. The sauce on the beef stew looked exactly the same as the sauce on the chicken curry. I hope that this was a one time mistake and not an intentional change in recipe because the beef stew had been the best dish here.
Lastly, and minor, I took a slice of pizza which looked good and looked pretty much as the pizza at another Asian buffet that we go to regularly. The cheese was nicely melted on the top, but under that layer of melted cheese was another layer of the same cheese that was not melted at all.
My wife was not as disappointed as I was but she had intended to have the beef stew also and when she found out that it was spicy, she was not going to take it. She eats more general Asian buffet and does not mind the usual pepper steak and chicken with broccoli. She was the one of us who described this meal as inconsistent.
To the positive, there were stone crab halves that I did not try. They were large and they had nutcrackers next to the serving tray. Global buffet has started putting discount coupons in the local major newspaper, Newsday and also in one of the mailer discount coupon books. The coupon is for $2 off adult dinner prices up to 10 at the table.
And for the OCB nostalgic about this location, the men's and ladies rooms are in the same location as they were when this was OCB but you will not believe the transformation. They are fancy with fancy plumbing fixtures. There are paper towels and hand dryers. And they are clean. Seems that everyone who walks into these has the same reaction - wow, are these so much better than they were!
I really want this restaurant to succeed. I want to go and have a nice "international" meal at a good price. They maybe still have to break themselves in more, but right now it is inconsistent. Inconsistent is not good. We will go back - but things will have to go back to where it was a week ago and what should not be spicy must not be spicy, if we will go back after the next try.
ADDENDUM:
We went back a week later. The turkey was a little better - at least it was white and looked more like turkey. It is cheap turkey roll/turkey breast. At least it was edible. The beef stew was moved away from the the curry chicken - that is behind the beef stew and two trays over now. The beef stew was now edible and no longer was spicy or tasted like curry.
I tried the hibachi bar. I added what looked like a steak to my plate of vegetables. When I took the steak I had second thoughts. it was grey, lacking in any marbling, and was frozen solid - the frozen part did not bother me any. It was good and I brought it back to the table. I cut a piece of "steak" off and tried to eat it. I could not chew it. It actually was like rubber. I tried cutting pieces off in various parts of the meat. None would chew. Each came back out of my mouth and on to the plate. I ate the vegetables which were fine.
My wife has been eating the pepper steak here - from the buffet table - since we started coming here. She took a bite at this meal and said it was so spicy that it was burning her mouth. She said it has never been like that before - and I, too, have had it here before and no, it was never spicy. I asked her what tray was it next to. We went to look. It was right next to Hot Pepper Chicken - a very hot and spicy dish. So just like the beef stew the last time, either the serving spoon or something from the Hot Pepper Chicken went into the Pepper Steak! This is very serious. If one were allergic to something in that other tray - and ate the pepper steak they could be in serious trouble!
Inconsistent is still the best way to describe this buffet! Each visit there have been surprises and only on our second visit were the surprises not unpleasant. I cannot recommend this buffet to anyone at this point until they get their act together!
I had not intended to write an article but just make a comment on the last article about our third visit to Global Buffet but it just seemed that it needed to be set apart. We had not intended to dine at Global Buffet on this night but we were heading to another restaurant (we don't just eat at buffets) and realized as we got there that they were closed to host a special event, so we decided to go over to Global Buffet.
My experience, in particular, at this dinner shows that Global Buffet at this point is inconsistent. Because we had not planned to dine at an Asian buffet, I decided that I was going to eat primarily American - which has not been a problem on our past two trips. I had planned on sliced turkey with a few other American dishes.
The turkey as unlike it has been on either of our first two dinners here. It was hard to distinguish this turkey from ham. It is in a serving tray next to the ham - each labeled - and the ham had pineapple slices on it - and the turkey did not - though on the outside and the meat both resembled each other closely. If this was turkey it was a cheap, processed turkey breast - a ball that was roasted - evenly brown/black on the outside - the meat was less white than turkey and more the pink of ham. The flavor was slightly salty - like ham. I would just say that this was another ham put out in the turkey tray - but as I say it was not covered in pineapple slices as the ham was. It was not good at all. There was nothing wrong with it but it was not good. Even OCB Turkey which was never a great turkey breast was better than this. After the first slice I decided that I had to find something else to complete the meal.
As I was going around the buffet to see what I would eat, I saw that the pork spare ribs looked different - more like I expect Chinese Spare Ribs to look - and still not in thick red sauce - but definitely covered in some type of thin sweet sauce. I took one of those. I also took a small beef rib. The beef ribs were now sitting in a tray with a thin reddish gravy on them - that was not there the last time. I wondered as I saw the spare ribs if they are reading this site and tried to create the ribs I described in our last article that I find better than the ones I had here on the last visit. These, on this night, were not better - and maybe not as good as they had been. The beef rib was better without any sauce on them.
So onward, to the next trip up to the buffet and I went to a tried and true choice from visit one and visit two - beef stew. Oh boy! It looked right. One bite of beef and it was spicy. At best that I can identify the spice I would say the stew sauce was full of curry. In the past few years my stomach has become sensitive to anything that is spicy and I knew if I continued to eat this I was going to have a problem. I tried a piece of potato from the stew - same taste of curry. What did they do? Did they change the recipe? If so, why? One possibility - the beef stew and the chicken curry sit in trays next to each other. Did someone mix the sauce from the curry into the beef stew? There was too strong a taste of spice for it to have been just the curry serving spoon finding its way from one to the other. I went back to look at the beef stew tray. The sauce on the beef stew looked exactly the same as the sauce on the chicken curry. I hope that this was a one time mistake and not an intentional change in recipe because the beef stew had been the best dish here.
Lastly, and minor, I took a slice of pizza which looked good and looked pretty much as the pizza at another Asian buffet that we go to regularly. The cheese was nicely melted on the top, but under that layer of melted cheese was another layer of the same cheese that was not melted at all.
My wife was not as disappointed as I was but she had intended to have the beef stew also and when she found out that it was spicy, she was not going to take it. She eats more general Asian buffet and does not mind the usual pepper steak and chicken with broccoli. She was the one of us who described this meal as inconsistent.
To the positive, there were stone crab halves that I did not try. They were large and they had nutcrackers next to the serving tray. Global buffet has started putting discount coupons in the local major newspaper, Newsday and also in one of the mailer discount coupon books. The coupon is for $2 off adult dinner prices up to 10 at the table.
And for the OCB nostalgic about this location, the men's and ladies rooms are in the same location as they were when this was OCB but you will not believe the transformation. They are fancy with fancy plumbing fixtures. There are paper towels and hand dryers. And they are clean. Seems that everyone who walks into these has the same reaction - wow, are these so much better than they were!
I really want this restaurant to succeed. I want to go and have a nice "international" meal at a good price. They maybe still have to break themselves in more, but right now it is inconsistent. Inconsistent is not good. We will go back - but things will have to go back to where it was a week ago and what should not be spicy must not be spicy, if we will go back after the next try.
ADDENDUM:
We went back a week later. The turkey was a little better - at least it was white and looked more like turkey. It is cheap turkey roll/turkey breast. At least it was edible. The beef stew was moved away from the the curry chicken - that is behind the beef stew and two trays over now. The beef stew was now edible and no longer was spicy or tasted like curry.
I tried the hibachi bar. I added what looked like a steak to my plate of vegetables. When I took the steak I had second thoughts. it was grey, lacking in any marbling, and was frozen solid - the frozen part did not bother me any. It was good and I brought it back to the table. I cut a piece of "steak" off and tried to eat it. I could not chew it. It actually was like rubber. I tried cutting pieces off in various parts of the meat. None would chew. Each came back out of my mouth and on to the plate. I ate the vegetables which were fine.
My wife has been eating the pepper steak here - from the buffet table - since we started coming here. She took a bite at this meal and said it was so spicy that it was burning her mouth. She said it has never been like that before - and I, too, have had it here before and no, it was never spicy. I asked her what tray was it next to. We went to look. It was right next to Hot Pepper Chicken - a very hot and spicy dish. So just like the beef stew the last time, either the serving spoon or something from the Hot Pepper Chicken went into the Pepper Steak! This is very serious. If one were allergic to something in that other tray - and ate the pepper steak they could be in serious trouble!
Inconsistent is still the best way to describe this buffet! Each visit there have been surprises and only on our second visit were the surprises not unpleasant. I cannot recommend this buffet to anyone at this point until they get their act together!
Saturday, September 09, 2017
Global Buffet, Levittown, NY - SECOND VISIT
We went back to Global Buffet. (See our first article about this buffet.) They have made some positive changes in the past two weeks since they opened.
Either they read our article or someone there was told or realized that their steam tables were set at too low a temperature, but now the temperature of the food is correct. Nothing was cold or just warm. Everything that needs to be hot was properly hot.
When we were there the first time, we overheard someone ask the manager why there was no Egg Drop Soup. There is now Egg Drop Soup. The soups section has changed. Gone is the so-so chicken noodle soup and also the soup that was unidentifiable in the serving pot. The soups now are WonTon Soup, Egg Drop Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, Miso Soup, and Clam Soup. They have also added in one of the spaces for a soup pot server, steamed Dim Sum filled with meat. I tried the WonTon Soup. It was good. I don't know if it was just chance but the wonton was the largest wonton that i have ever had. When I walked past later it may have just been chance as what I saw was standard sized. There is not much to do with wonton soup to make one different than another. The broth was better than most.
There was an additional meat on the American meat carving section. They added large beef ribs. They are big and long ribs with a lot of meet. The meet is stringy but that is how beef ribs are. They do not have a light sauce on them based on what was in the pan they are served in, but this did not add any different flavor to them. They were pretty good. Now, I know what some are going to think - just like OCB's long gone beef ribs - not really. These are cooked more like short ribs than OCB's beef ribs were - but they are something you rarely see anymore - and don't see at a buffet. In this section, they have made a place for the turkey gravy to sit in the steam table and it was kept properly hot. The turkey seemed more to be a roasted turkey breast - but it was juicy and good and the gravy makes it better.
My wife found a shrimp dish that she says was not there the last time. It was called Seafood Delight - which in other Asian buffets usually is a mix of shrimp and fish. This was just shrimp and that made her happy. She said it was very good.
I tried more Asian dishes this visit than I did the first - as I was focusing then on the American offerings. The sushi bar was full and there was a tray of large pieces of raw salmon - no rice. They were big and moist - and good. Then there were the usual sushi in addition. Next to the sushi bar there are Asian cold "appetizers" including peanut chicken with noodles. That was good - not spicy and that made it even better. I tried the pepper steak and the beef was not overcooked, a little chewy, but tasty. The sauce did not overwhelm it - as it often does in other Asian buffets. The Spring Rolls are standard - but not over cooked as they are in some other buffets. I tried stuffed fish - a roll of fish stuffed with more fish. It was fine. I tried their spare ribs. The spare ribs are close to Chinese restaurant spare ribs - not covered in sticky red sugar sauce, but just broiled under a hot broiler. Teh spare ribs were good - not as good as the spare ribs at Good Taste Buffer in Commack, NY which I have written about several times in the past that to me have the best Chinese Spare Ribs of any buffet. These at Global are close but not as good. I can only describe the ones at Good Taste as having sizzle - these lack the sizzle. BUT not bad - and better than most.
I did go back to the things I liked the first time - the turkey, the beef stew, and the baked clams. All still good! I even tried a french fry to see how it is - something very basic but not all Asian buffets that serve them do it well. Not much of an achievement but here it was good.
The ice cream machine is working and the soft serve ice cream was nice and creamy - not at all icy. There were a few different cakes including a chocolate cake with cheesecake on top and a coffee cake. I tried both of those and they were good. I had intended to take the hot apple strudel and took these instead. I was happy I did. My wife took the strudel and liked it.
The service was still good. The Senior price has gone down to $12.99 from $13.99. The adult price stayed the same. An effort was made to keep everything moist and also empty or near empty trays were refilled fairly quickly.
At the end of the meal my wife summed it up - "It's pleasant!". Yes it is. The food is fine. The decor is nice - not at all like it was as OCB. It is funny sitting in there after all of those years sitting in the same space as OCB. We were near the side door and my wife said to me, that we were near where the claw machine was - yes, we were!
They still don't have a web page but they do have a Facebook page. From the Facebook page I saw that they had a special dinner for Labor Day that included lobster and steaks and with on increase in price. There was a negative comment that there was no lobster while they were there - I don't know. I am looking at negative comments about this restaurant in view of what I am seeing for myself - especially now with the improvements I have seen in just two weeks. The restaurant across the street is trying hard to get their business back - which many of us know went down long before this new buffet opened - and I am not sure that some negative comments I have seen have not been planted.
At this point I will say, "Yes! Try it!"***. It is primarily an Asian buffet but it is not hard to sit down and not eat any Asian dishes for the entire meal with the meat carvings and other "American" dishes and sides. You could have corn on the cob, fries, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and any of the meats out to carve. We have not tried the hibachi grill - it is standard to what most are like. I looked closely at the grill area behind the counter - there is a flat grill and also a char flame grill. I don't know what they make on that grill but it is there. I know many were expecting an OCB like buffet and this is not it. Give it a chance for what it is. I will be going back.
Global Buffet (the and grill seems to not be on any sign now - but the grill is here and open) is located at 3541 Hempstead Tpke, Levittown, NY 11756. Here is the phone number (516) 605-1799. Hours on their Facebook page say they are open 11:00 am to 11:00 pm. Good for a late night dinner or if you are running late and all others have closed for the night.
***
READ THE NEXT ARTICLE AND IT'S ADDENDUM FOR AN IMPORTANT UPDATE BEFORE GOING TO THIS BUFFET!
Either they read our article or someone there was told or realized that their steam tables were set at too low a temperature, but now the temperature of the food is correct. Nothing was cold or just warm. Everything that needs to be hot was properly hot.
When we were there the first time, we overheard someone ask the manager why there was no Egg Drop Soup. There is now Egg Drop Soup. The soups section has changed. Gone is the so-so chicken noodle soup and also the soup that was unidentifiable in the serving pot. The soups now are WonTon Soup, Egg Drop Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, Miso Soup, and Clam Soup. They have also added in one of the spaces for a soup pot server, steamed Dim Sum filled with meat. I tried the WonTon Soup. It was good. I don't know if it was just chance but the wonton was the largest wonton that i have ever had. When I walked past later it may have just been chance as what I saw was standard sized. There is not much to do with wonton soup to make one different than another. The broth was better than most.
There was an additional meat on the American meat carving section. They added large beef ribs. They are big and long ribs with a lot of meet. The meet is stringy but that is how beef ribs are. They do not have a light sauce on them based on what was in the pan they are served in, but this did not add any different flavor to them. They were pretty good. Now, I know what some are going to think - just like OCB's long gone beef ribs - not really. These are cooked more like short ribs than OCB's beef ribs were - but they are something you rarely see anymore - and don't see at a buffet. In this section, they have made a place for the turkey gravy to sit in the steam table and it was kept properly hot. The turkey seemed more to be a roasted turkey breast - but it was juicy and good and the gravy makes it better.
My wife found a shrimp dish that she says was not there the last time. It was called Seafood Delight - which in other Asian buffets usually is a mix of shrimp and fish. This was just shrimp and that made her happy. She said it was very good.
I tried more Asian dishes this visit than I did the first - as I was focusing then on the American offerings. The sushi bar was full and there was a tray of large pieces of raw salmon - no rice. They were big and moist - and good. Then there were the usual sushi in addition. Next to the sushi bar there are Asian cold "appetizers" including peanut chicken with noodles. That was good - not spicy and that made it even better. I tried the pepper steak and the beef was not overcooked, a little chewy, but tasty. The sauce did not overwhelm it - as it often does in other Asian buffets. The Spring Rolls are standard - but not over cooked as they are in some other buffets. I tried stuffed fish - a roll of fish stuffed with more fish. It was fine. I tried their spare ribs. The spare ribs are close to Chinese restaurant spare ribs - not covered in sticky red sugar sauce, but just broiled under a hot broiler. Teh spare ribs were good - not as good as the spare ribs at Good Taste Buffer in Commack, NY which I have written about several times in the past that to me have the best Chinese Spare Ribs of any buffet. These at Global are close but not as good. I can only describe the ones at Good Taste as having sizzle - these lack the sizzle. BUT not bad - and better than most.
I did go back to the things I liked the first time - the turkey, the beef stew, and the baked clams. All still good! I even tried a french fry to see how it is - something very basic but not all Asian buffets that serve them do it well. Not much of an achievement but here it was good.
The ice cream machine is working and the soft serve ice cream was nice and creamy - not at all icy. There were a few different cakes including a chocolate cake with cheesecake on top and a coffee cake. I tried both of those and they were good. I had intended to take the hot apple strudel and took these instead. I was happy I did. My wife took the strudel and liked it.
The service was still good. The Senior price has gone down to $12.99 from $13.99. The adult price stayed the same. An effort was made to keep everything moist and also empty or near empty trays were refilled fairly quickly.
At the end of the meal my wife summed it up - "It's pleasant!". Yes it is. The food is fine. The decor is nice - not at all like it was as OCB. It is funny sitting in there after all of those years sitting in the same space as OCB. We were near the side door and my wife said to me, that we were near where the claw machine was - yes, we were!
They still don't have a web page but they do have a Facebook page. From the Facebook page I saw that they had a special dinner for Labor Day that included lobster and steaks and with on increase in price. There was a negative comment that there was no lobster while they were there - I don't know. I am looking at negative comments about this restaurant in view of what I am seeing for myself - especially now with the improvements I have seen in just two weeks. The restaurant across the street is trying hard to get their business back - which many of us know went down long before this new buffet opened - and I am not sure that some negative comments I have seen have not been planted.
At this point I will say, "Yes! Try it!"***. It is primarily an Asian buffet but it is not hard to sit down and not eat any Asian dishes for the entire meal with the meat carvings and other "American" dishes and sides. You could have corn on the cob, fries, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and any of the meats out to carve. We have not tried the hibachi grill - it is standard to what most are like. I looked closely at the grill area behind the counter - there is a flat grill and also a char flame grill. I don't know what they make on that grill but it is there. I know many were expecting an OCB like buffet and this is not it. Give it a chance for what it is. I will be going back.
Global Buffet (the and grill seems to not be on any sign now - but the grill is here and open) is located at 3541 Hempstead Tpke, Levittown, NY 11756. Here is the phone number (516) 605-1799. Hours on their Facebook page say they are open 11:00 am to 11:00 pm. Good for a late night dinner or if you are running late and all others have closed for the night.
***
READ THE NEXT ARTICLE AND IT'S ADDENDUM FOR AN IMPORTANT UPDATE BEFORE GOING TO THIS BUFFET!
Monday, August 28, 2017
Global Buffet, Levittown, New York
We went for dinner to the just opened Global Buffet which is located in the space that Old Country Buffet last occupied. You enter through the entrance that you entered when this was OCB and going through a second set of doors (as you did before) you come into an area that will become a bar or wine bar. There is a long bar counter along the wall to the left, and a lot of glass shelves on the walls holding decorative wine bottles lying horizontally across the shelves. To the right is an opening and this is the entrance to the restaurant. To the right is the cashier but you do not pay as you enter. You pay at your table at the end of your meal. A host brought us to our table. You may just be able to make out the form of the OCB when you see the room but there has been extensive work done and a lot has been added.
There are mostly booths through the restaurant with a few tables. There are two party rooms - one in the back where the OCB party room had been and another area in the front that is separated from the rest of the restaurant by a wall with glass decorative etched windows looking into the restaurant and an open entrance - that did not seem to have a door. There is a very small stage in the back corner of that room for parties. The dining rooms are fancily decorated and are very nice. On the east side of the restaurant are the buffet tables (nine hot/cold, double sided buffet serving tables), a dessert bar that is along the front of the wall that is an L shape - the short leg of the L parallel on the front to the front party room, then a hot foods carving area, followed by a long hibachi grill. Moving back from the grill there is another L with a sushi bar.
Outside in the entrance area from the street there is a sign with prices. The prices are pretty good. There is a lunch price of $9.99 for adults ($8.49) for seniors) Monday to Friday - and a children's price. The dinner price is $14.99 for adults and $13.99 for seniors plus a children's price which is for Monday through Saturday. There is a Saturday brunch price which I did not note. The Sunday lunch and dinner price is the same and is also $14.99 for adults and $13.99 for seniors. Soft drinks are not mentioned on the sign but are $1.99 and you get refills.
Now I will tell you what so many have been waiting to hear. This is an Asian buffet. There is a carving section that has you carve yourself Roast Turkey, Roast Brisket, and Glazed Baked Turkey. With that there is turkey gravy, mashed potatoes, and chunk pan fried potatoes. Over on the buffet tables mixed in with a large variety of Asian dishes are pork chops with peppers and onions on top, lamb with cream sauce, corned beef and cabbage, chicken Marsala, macaroni and cheese, french fries, mashed sweet potatoes, and beef stew. There is fried chicken that has been cut up into pieces - I don't mean whole pieces of fried chicken, but those pieces cut up into pieces. There was Sausage with Peppers and Onions, seafood pasta, Italian-style baked clams and "Italian" shrimp. There were also several fish dishes including a rolled and stuffed fillet of fish that was baked. There was typical Asian buffet pizza. There is also a Taco Bar and a decent salad bar with both salad greens and toppings and also prepared salads - a little better than you usually see in this area. There were six soups: Won Ton Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, Clam Soup, chicken noodle soup, and what appeared to be a seafood bisque of some kind. Most things are labeled, this soup was not.
The Asian foods are just about all that you generally find in an Asian buffet. There is a sushi bar and then there is an hibachi grill. The hibachi grill is a long row of raw vegetables and cut up pieces of various meats that you assemble yourself on a plate and hand it to the chef behind the grill at the end. This is the extent of the grill. Do not expect whole steaks or anything like that. The majority of dishes here are Asian.
How was the food? I am writing based on the second night they are open. Let's say that what I am going to report is opening shake out issues which hopefully will improve. There is a problem with serving temperatures. Many things were not hot enough. When something is first put out it is hot. Sitting on the steam table, even with hot warming lights over it - in the middle of the table covering both sides and not directly over each tray, the some of the food that I took was cold. I focused my meal on American food items, as at this point, I am "Asian buffeted out". For soup I took the chicken noodle soup. It turned out to be a thin watery cream soup with pieces of chicken and bowtie noodles. It had little flavor. I took corned beef and cabbage. Corned Beef is a favorite of mine and I was excited to find it. I understand that corned beef varies a great deal and there are many cuts. Some cuts of corned beef are very tough - almost difficult to chew. I took two pieces of corned beef - one from the bottom of the liquid in the tray and the other nearer the top. Both were cold. Both were so chewy and tough they were impossible to eat. I left most of both of them - trying each just in case one piece was better. It wasn't. I carved myself turkey twice during the dinner. The first piece I took was sufficiently warm. There was a small tray of gravy in the turkey tray and I took some gravy and put it on top. Together on that first try it was all fine. Later in the meal I went back for more turkey and this time when I ate the turkey it was near cold - and the tray of turkey gravy had been taken out of the turkey tray and put on the side of the counter and left there - with no heat under it or over it. I was not going to take the gravy this time. I took some of the ham - it was fine and warm enough. I took a pork chop which is more a slice of pork cooked like a pork chop. It was also cold, did not have much taste, and it was very tough - also hard to chew - to the point that I left over some of that as well. I tied chicken salad from the salad bar - real mayonnaise style chicken salad as opposed to Chinese Chicken Salad. It was also hard to chew. I tried the seafood and pasta - the pasta was underdone and chewy.
My wife was choosing a mix of Asian and American foods and she liked what she was having. What did I like? The beef stew was both hot, tender, and tasty both times I went up for it. I liked that a lot. The carved ham was fine. The cut up fried chicken was fine. The mashed potatoes tray had been empty for awhile and when it finally was refilled I took some mashed potatoes and it was fine. The mashed sweet potatoes were fine. The turkey the first time around was fine. I liked the baked clams a lot.
The desserts here include several cut up fresh fruits, puddings, jellos, etc. along with the usual Asian buffet little pieces of commercially baked cakes and a big assortment of cookies. Some of the cookies look beyond usual buffet cookies - but I tried one expecting it to be soft to the bite but it was not. I looked really good. They have hot bread pudding on one of the buffet tables. It is a mixture of egg custard and slices of bread baked on top and it was tasty. Not as great as some bread puddings but good. They also have apple strudel cut into slices and hot. This is found at some other Asian buffets. My wife had it and liked it. They have a soft serve ice cream machine but it is not yet working. It will be shortly. The waitresses were talking about it at a near by table and it will be a few days before they can get it into service.
I don't want you to come away from this article thinking that the food here or dinner here is not good. They need to progress a bit from their first two days being open. All the time we were there, there were Asian men who worked there going around to all of the food trays making notes on forms on clip boards. They need to get the temperatures of their steam tables adjusted, go around and stir the dishes so that they heat evenly and at the same time don't dry out. We certainly found things to eat - some of it could have been better. We did not leave hungry. The quality of the food seems fine. The price is decent. No coupons - or any advertising at all has shown up yet in the local newspaper for this restaurant - which is surprising. We will see if any start to show up. There were many people around us that seemed very happy.
Service was very good. Our empty dishes were taken away as soon as we were finished with them. Drinks were refilled with our waitress asking several times if we would like more - and it was promptly brought. There were a few moments of confusion by the waitress which were promptly corrected - no big deal. Everyone working was very polite and nice.
Will we go back? Yes. While it is a couple of dollars more than the Asian buffet we have been going to in Baldwin, it is much closer. If I am in the mood for Asian, it has all that I would expect and then there is the added benefit of the American dishes - which most of my readers know have been sorely missed in this area. (Maybe someone could introduce them to a good meat loaf recipe?) So I recommend it? If you are eager to see it for yourself and try it - sure. Just understand that there are some improvements needed which they will pick up on and fix. If you want to wait and give them some time to shake out the wrinkles, we hope that giving them some time will bring it up a notch or two. And is they are smart and read this article they will know exactly what they need to look closer at.
As we go along we will let you know what happens. As I say, we will be going back - and when there is something to write about, we will write it.
There are mostly booths through the restaurant with a few tables. There are two party rooms - one in the back where the OCB party room had been and another area in the front that is separated from the rest of the restaurant by a wall with glass decorative etched windows looking into the restaurant and an open entrance - that did not seem to have a door. There is a very small stage in the back corner of that room for parties. The dining rooms are fancily decorated and are very nice. On the east side of the restaurant are the buffet tables (nine hot/cold, double sided buffet serving tables), a dessert bar that is along the front of the wall that is an L shape - the short leg of the L parallel on the front to the front party room, then a hot foods carving area, followed by a long hibachi grill. Moving back from the grill there is another L with a sushi bar.
Outside in the entrance area from the street there is a sign with prices. The prices are pretty good. There is a lunch price of $9.99 for adults ($8.49) for seniors) Monday to Friday - and a children's price. The dinner price is $14.99 for adults and $13.99 for seniors plus a children's price which is for Monday through Saturday. There is a Saturday brunch price which I did not note. The Sunday lunch and dinner price is the same and is also $14.99 for adults and $13.99 for seniors. Soft drinks are not mentioned on the sign but are $1.99 and you get refills.
Now I will tell you what so many have been waiting to hear. This is an Asian buffet. There is a carving section that has you carve yourself Roast Turkey, Roast Brisket, and Glazed Baked Turkey. With that there is turkey gravy, mashed potatoes, and chunk pan fried potatoes. Over on the buffet tables mixed in with a large variety of Asian dishes are pork chops with peppers and onions on top, lamb with cream sauce, corned beef and cabbage, chicken Marsala, macaroni and cheese, french fries, mashed sweet potatoes, and beef stew. There is fried chicken that has been cut up into pieces - I don't mean whole pieces of fried chicken, but those pieces cut up into pieces. There was Sausage with Peppers and Onions, seafood pasta, Italian-style baked clams and "Italian" shrimp. There were also several fish dishes including a rolled and stuffed fillet of fish that was baked. There was typical Asian buffet pizza. There is also a Taco Bar and a decent salad bar with both salad greens and toppings and also prepared salads - a little better than you usually see in this area. There were six soups: Won Ton Soup, Hot and Sour Soup, Clam Soup, chicken noodle soup, and what appeared to be a seafood bisque of some kind. Most things are labeled, this soup was not.
The Asian foods are just about all that you generally find in an Asian buffet. There is a sushi bar and then there is an hibachi grill. The hibachi grill is a long row of raw vegetables and cut up pieces of various meats that you assemble yourself on a plate and hand it to the chef behind the grill at the end. This is the extent of the grill. Do not expect whole steaks or anything like that. The majority of dishes here are Asian.
How was the food? I am writing based on the second night they are open. Let's say that what I am going to report is opening shake out issues which hopefully will improve. There is a problem with serving temperatures. Many things were not hot enough. When something is first put out it is hot. Sitting on the steam table, even with hot warming lights over it - in the middle of the table covering both sides and not directly over each tray, the some of the food that I took was cold. I focused my meal on American food items, as at this point, I am "Asian buffeted out". For soup I took the chicken noodle soup. It turned out to be a thin watery cream soup with pieces of chicken and bowtie noodles. It had little flavor. I took corned beef and cabbage. Corned Beef is a favorite of mine and I was excited to find it. I understand that corned beef varies a great deal and there are many cuts. Some cuts of corned beef are very tough - almost difficult to chew. I took two pieces of corned beef - one from the bottom of the liquid in the tray and the other nearer the top. Both were cold. Both were so chewy and tough they were impossible to eat. I left most of both of them - trying each just in case one piece was better. It wasn't. I carved myself turkey twice during the dinner. The first piece I took was sufficiently warm. There was a small tray of gravy in the turkey tray and I took some gravy and put it on top. Together on that first try it was all fine. Later in the meal I went back for more turkey and this time when I ate the turkey it was near cold - and the tray of turkey gravy had been taken out of the turkey tray and put on the side of the counter and left there - with no heat under it or over it. I was not going to take the gravy this time. I took some of the ham - it was fine and warm enough. I took a pork chop which is more a slice of pork cooked like a pork chop. It was also cold, did not have much taste, and it was very tough - also hard to chew - to the point that I left over some of that as well. I tied chicken salad from the salad bar - real mayonnaise style chicken salad as opposed to Chinese Chicken Salad. It was also hard to chew. I tried the seafood and pasta - the pasta was underdone and chewy.
My wife was choosing a mix of Asian and American foods and she liked what she was having. What did I like? The beef stew was both hot, tender, and tasty both times I went up for it. I liked that a lot. The carved ham was fine. The cut up fried chicken was fine. The mashed potatoes tray had been empty for awhile and when it finally was refilled I took some mashed potatoes and it was fine. The mashed sweet potatoes were fine. The turkey the first time around was fine. I liked the baked clams a lot.
The desserts here include several cut up fresh fruits, puddings, jellos, etc. along with the usual Asian buffet little pieces of commercially baked cakes and a big assortment of cookies. Some of the cookies look beyond usual buffet cookies - but I tried one expecting it to be soft to the bite but it was not. I looked really good. They have hot bread pudding on one of the buffet tables. It is a mixture of egg custard and slices of bread baked on top and it was tasty. Not as great as some bread puddings but good. They also have apple strudel cut into slices and hot. This is found at some other Asian buffets. My wife had it and liked it. They have a soft serve ice cream machine but it is not yet working. It will be shortly. The waitresses were talking about it at a near by table and it will be a few days before they can get it into service.
I don't want you to come away from this article thinking that the food here or dinner here is not good. They need to progress a bit from their first two days being open. All the time we were there, there were Asian men who worked there going around to all of the food trays making notes on forms on clip boards. They need to get the temperatures of their steam tables adjusted, go around and stir the dishes so that they heat evenly and at the same time don't dry out. We certainly found things to eat - some of it could have been better. We did not leave hungry. The quality of the food seems fine. The price is decent. No coupons - or any advertising at all has shown up yet in the local newspaper for this restaurant - which is surprising. We will see if any start to show up. There were many people around us that seemed very happy.
Service was very good. Our empty dishes were taken away as soon as we were finished with them. Drinks were refilled with our waitress asking several times if we would like more - and it was promptly brought. There were a few moments of confusion by the waitress which were promptly corrected - no big deal. Everyone working was very polite and nice.
Will we go back? Yes. While it is a couple of dollars more than the Asian buffet we have been going to in Baldwin, it is much closer. If I am in the mood for Asian, it has all that I would expect and then there is the added benefit of the American dishes - which most of my readers know have been sorely missed in this area. (Maybe someone could introduce them to a good meat loaf recipe?) So I recommend it? If you are eager to see it for yourself and try it - sure. Just understand that there are some improvements needed which they will pick up on and fix. If you want to wait and give them some time to shake out the wrinkles, we hope that giving them some time will bring it up a notch or two. And is they are smart and read this article they will know exactly what they need to look closer at.
As we go along we will let you know what happens. As I say, we will be going back - and when there is something to write about, we will write it.
Global Buffet (the and grill seems to not be on any sign now - but the grill is here and open) is located at 3541 Hempstead Tpke, Levittown, NY 11756. I have seen three different phone numbers on two different phone listings - one with one number and another with two different numbers from each other and the one on the other listing. As a result I am not listing any phone number. There were no hours listed that we could see at the restaurant. There is no website and there is no Facebook page. Anything that you find about Global Buffet on the Internet if it does not say Levittown, NY it is not them. There was a Global Buffet that closed in Oswego, NY a year ago and there is a Global Buffet in Canada - that is definitely not related to this one. At some point there should be a website and a Facebook page - but that is only a guess based on standard operating procedure for restaurants for this day and age.
Saturday, March 25, 2017
OCB Levittown Former Location News
We drove past the former location of Old Country Buffet in Levittown, New York today and there is a change. There is now a sign on the side of the building - and soon to be one on the front of the building. The sign says, "GLOBAL BUFFET".
I have tried to find out about what Global Buffet might be. From the name, I say that this is ANOTHER not needed, Asian buffet which will be in direct competition from another large Asian buffet directly across the street. I have found a Global Buffet that WAS in Oswego, New York. This has closed. It was a Chinese/Asian buffet with mixed reviews that tended toward the negative - and since it has gone out of business, evidently those who though poorly of it were correct. The other is a chain of buffets in Great Britain - though this is named "JRC Global Buffet". These seem to actually be a combination of world foods including American, British, French, Asian, Thai, Brazilian, and more. That would have possibilities but I doubt that this is what this Global Buffet will be - and their website talks about making reservations SO unless that is something that Eurpeans just expect to be able to do, it will not go over well here with the usual buffet dining crowd.
So now we wait and see. It will not likely be long until we know. This does put to rest any idea that Golden Corral was coming here. I would so much like to see an American buffet or an actual "international" buffet open that is not Asian based. There are enough Asian buffets near by - and the affordable ones all seem to serve the same things. I have been looking forward to a buffet coming with things like meatloaf, carved turkey, steak - maybe, roast beef, real ribs - maybe, fried chicken... Well, I am not so hopeful anymore.
If I can learn more, I will be back with another article.
I have tried to find out about what Global Buffet might be. From the name, I say that this is ANOTHER not needed, Asian buffet which will be in direct competition from another large Asian buffet directly across the street. I have found a Global Buffet that WAS in Oswego, New York. This has closed. It was a Chinese/Asian buffet with mixed reviews that tended toward the negative - and since it has gone out of business, evidently those who though poorly of it were correct. The other is a chain of buffets in Great Britain - though this is named "JRC Global Buffet". These seem to actually be a combination of world foods including American, British, French, Asian, Thai, Brazilian, and more. That would have possibilities but I doubt that this is what this Global Buffet will be - and their website talks about making reservations SO unless that is something that Eurpeans just expect to be able to do, it will not go over well here with the usual buffet dining crowd.
So now we wait and see. It will not likely be long until we know. This does put to rest any idea that Golden Corral was coming here. I would so much like to see an American buffet or an actual "international" buffet open that is not Asian based. There are enough Asian buffets near by - and the affordable ones all seem to serve the same things. I have been looking forward to a buffet coming with things like meatloaf, carved turkey, steak - maybe, roast beef, real ribs - maybe, fried chicken... Well, I am not so hopeful anymore.
If I can learn more, I will be back with another article.
Friday, December 18, 2015
What is Going On at Old Country Buffet?
I have to wonder what has been going on at Old Country Buffet. We have been going fairly regularly to a local Old Country Buffet, one I recommended as improving not very long ago in Levittown, New York. Things there have been going down hill - again. The management has not changed. What is being served has changed. How the food is being maintained and put out on the buffet has changed drastically. I rarely get ill after eating at any of the many buffets that we have been to over the year. In the span of several weeks after a meal here, that is exactly what happened - and too soon after the meal for it to have been anything else. This I blame on how the food is being maintained once out on the buffet - and goes from soup to soft serve ice cream.
What I can attribute to this particular location is how the food is being put out and maintained on the buffet and I will get to that shortly> What I am not sure about is who is deciding on the choices of the entrees being served on the buffet - which now change very little from night to night and are greatly lacking. This I believe is coming from the new corporate entity that bought out Ovation Brands and has taken over ownership and stewardship of the Old Country Buffet restaurants. I know from discrete conversations with OCB restaurant managers that they are told by the company what items to serve on any one particular night - and it was implied that these are consistent throughout the chain. I have to wonder if "new corporate" is going out of their way to make the restaurants fail.
What is happening with the food items chosen? For months now there has been no turkey carving at OCB. This has been a standard carving since the restaurants opened. I understand that there is a turkey "shortage" in the US due to bird flu - but this has not seemed to have effected any other buffet chain or buffet restaurant that we have been to for many months right to today. There is turkey at Golden Corral. There has been turkey at all of the Lancaster buffets. There has been turkey at casino buffets. The only place that seems to have had a need to remove turkey from their offerings is Old Country Buffet. Thanksgiving dinner at OCB was not advertised until a few days before Thanksgiving - no posters in the restaurants at all up to the night before - just a single email saying that there would be Thanksgiving dinner served and there would be turkey. They found turkeys to server for Thanksgiving - but that was it - just Thanksgiving. On some nights the turkey carving has been replaced with pork roast but on some of those same nights the main meat served at the buffet in all of the entrees except the roast beef and some chicken has been pork. I like pork, but how many pork dishes need to be on a buffet in the same night. The idea of eating at a buffet is having a variety. There is little variety now. Rarely do we find meatloaf. Certainly there is no shortage of meatloaf.
So what is there? Roast beef, baked chicken, fried chicken, some type of ribs - either baby back ribs (which had been an advertised feature for a time) or sweet sauce soaked riblets, ham, fried fish sticks or baked fish, sometimes spaghetti and then one or two things that are supposed to vary but often don't such as small burgers in mushroom sauce, pot roast, unlabeled chunks of possibly chicken in a mystery sauce, pulled pork without bbq sauce, sausage patties in a thick and sweet orange sauce, and chicken pot pies cooked and served in small ramekin dishes. And often if you come in more than once in a week you will find exactly the same thing that was there the night that you had been there just before.
Before the corporate buyout. in an anonymous conversation that I had with a then corporate representative of Ovation Brands, the move was to return the items to the menu that many had loved over the years at OCB in an effort to bring back customers who had stopped coming because what was good on OCB's buffet was no longer being served. Well, that never seemed to happen - and it has just gotten worse now that they are "under new ownership".
Now, lets look at what is going on at the local restaurant. Regardless of the night now, from busy weekend dinner to slow but not empty weeknight, food is coming out way overcooked and allowed to sit and dry out. Tonight's meal was the ultimate. There is not much that can be done wrong with macaroni and cheese, tonight and other nights, the mac and cheese has been completely dried out on top. Get any of the top layer in what you spoon onto your plate and that is hard, rubbery, and not possible to chew. The sting beans were dried out. The ham was overdone and its meat darkened where it should have been pink. The tray of spaghetti was a tray of hard, dried out, crinkled spaghetti sitting in oil. The small tomatoes on the salad bar were mushy and their peels wrinkling and dry. The small burgers in what was once mushroom sauce were little pucks of meat with dried gravy over the surface. The tray of baked fish was dried out. The pizza had come out over done and burnt and only dried out more under the heat lamp. The topper was the piece of chocolate cake that I took for dessert was stale. There was no sign of a manager and no one working came around to stir a tray or remove a tray of food that just should not have been kept out to be served.
On other nights we have found pulled pork sitting in a tray deep with grease, pot roast that had been served that was either seasoned oddly or was just not right, fried chicken that was so overcooked that the outer crust was too hard to bite through to the point of risking breaking a tooth. The chicken noodle soup has been so salty on some nights that it was inedible. There have been nights that the soft serve ice cream has tasted sour - of course with one taste it was not eaten.
This meal costs $14.00 at local OCBs. In this area the only other buffets are Asian buffets but compared in price to the popular ones here, OCB is higher or the same price but those Asian buffets are giving a far better meal that is prepared and maintained correctly. If I compare what is being served with any of the Lancaster buffets - some of which are lower in price - there is no comparison to the quality food that is being served and well maintained on the buffet at those other buffets. Compare OCB to Golden Corral - oh how I wish there was a Golden Corral that did not involve a lot of money in tolls and gasoline to get to - Golden Corral is the far better buffet. There is something wrong here and it needs attention. Is there supervision from the new corporation? I have to wonder. As I say, the problem is on two both ends -the local restaurant that has to cook and maintain what they put on the buffet properly, and the new owners who are directing the choices of the foods being served. Both are lacking terribly right now. Perhaps it is just here locally - perhaps it is chain wide. I don't know. I do know that this is no way to continue to stay in business - but perhaps that is exactly what the new owners want.
This troubled us so much tonight that I pushed another article scheduled for publication tonight to a future date and I have delayed writing the article I had intended to write next. I had so much hope for this particular OCB as the manager had been turning things around. As the downward turn has coincided with the corporate change I have to conclude that the two are connected. And I thought I was finished writing poor reviews of Old Country Buffets. Ah well. I am better off eating home that going to OCB - and despite good cooking at home - I really like going out to a buffet for dinner.
What I can attribute to this particular location is how the food is being put out and maintained on the buffet and I will get to that shortly> What I am not sure about is who is deciding on the choices of the entrees being served on the buffet - which now change very little from night to night and are greatly lacking. This I believe is coming from the new corporate entity that bought out Ovation Brands and has taken over ownership and stewardship of the Old Country Buffet restaurants. I know from discrete conversations with OCB restaurant managers that they are told by the company what items to serve on any one particular night - and it was implied that these are consistent throughout the chain. I have to wonder if "new corporate" is going out of their way to make the restaurants fail.
What is happening with the food items chosen? For months now there has been no turkey carving at OCB. This has been a standard carving since the restaurants opened. I understand that there is a turkey "shortage" in the US due to bird flu - but this has not seemed to have effected any other buffet chain or buffet restaurant that we have been to for many months right to today. There is turkey at Golden Corral. There has been turkey at all of the Lancaster buffets. There has been turkey at casino buffets. The only place that seems to have had a need to remove turkey from their offerings is Old Country Buffet. Thanksgiving dinner at OCB was not advertised until a few days before Thanksgiving - no posters in the restaurants at all up to the night before - just a single email saying that there would be Thanksgiving dinner served and there would be turkey. They found turkeys to server for Thanksgiving - but that was it - just Thanksgiving. On some nights the turkey carving has been replaced with pork roast but on some of those same nights the main meat served at the buffet in all of the entrees except the roast beef and some chicken has been pork. I like pork, but how many pork dishes need to be on a buffet in the same night. The idea of eating at a buffet is having a variety. There is little variety now. Rarely do we find meatloaf. Certainly there is no shortage of meatloaf.
So what is there? Roast beef, baked chicken, fried chicken, some type of ribs - either baby back ribs (which had been an advertised feature for a time) or sweet sauce soaked riblets, ham, fried fish sticks or baked fish, sometimes spaghetti and then one or two things that are supposed to vary but often don't such as small burgers in mushroom sauce, pot roast, unlabeled chunks of possibly chicken in a mystery sauce, pulled pork without bbq sauce, sausage patties in a thick and sweet orange sauce, and chicken pot pies cooked and served in small ramekin dishes. And often if you come in more than once in a week you will find exactly the same thing that was there the night that you had been there just before.
Before the corporate buyout. in an anonymous conversation that I had with a then corporate representative of Ovation Brands, the move was to return the items to the menu that many had loved over the years at OCB in an effort to bring back customers who had stopped coming because what was good on OCB's buffet was no longer being served. Well, that never seemed to happen - and it has just gotten worse now that they are "under new ownership".
Now, lets look at what is going on at the local restaurant. Regardless of the night now, from busy weekend dinner to slow but not empty weeknight, food is coming out way overcooked and allowed to sit and dry out. Tonight's meal was the ultimate. There is not much that can be done wrong with macaroni and cheese, tonight and other nights, the mac and cheese has been completely dried out on top. Get any of the top layer in what you spoon onto your plate and that is hard, rubbery, and not possible to chew. The sting beans were dried out. The ham was overdone and its meat darkened where it should have been pink. The tray of spaghetti was a tray of hard, dried out, crinkled spaghetti sitting in oil. The small tomatoes on the salad bar were mushy and their peels wrinkling and dry. The small burgers in what was once mushroom sauce were little pucks of meat with dried gravy over the surface. The tray of baked fish was dried out. The pizza had come out over done and burnt and only dried out more under the heat lamp. The topper was the piece of chocolate cake that I took for dessert was stale. There was no sign of a manager and no one working came around to stir a tray or remove a tray of food that just should not have been kept out to be served.
On other nights we have found pulled pork sitting in a tray deep with grease, pot roast that had been served that was either seasoned oddly or was just not right, fried chicken that was so overcooked that the outer crust was too hard to bite through to the point of risking breaking a tooth. The chicken noodle soup has been so salty on some nights that it was inedible. There have been nights that the soft serve ice cream has tasted sour - of course with one taste it was not eaten.
This meal costs $14.00 at local OCBs. In this area the only other buffets are Asian buffets but compared in price to the popular ones here, OCB is higher or the same price but those Asian buffets are giving a far better meal that is prepared and maintained correctly. If I compare what is being served with any of the Lancaster buffets - some of which are lower in price - there is no comparison to the quality food that is being served and well maintained on the buffet at those other buffets. Compare OCB to Golden Corral - oh how I wish there was a Golden Corral that did not involve a lot of money in tolls and gasoline to get to - Golden Corral is the far better buffet. There is something wrong here and it needs attention. Is there supervision from the new corporation? I have to wonder. As I say, the problem is on two both ends -the local restaurant that has to cook and maintain what they put on the buffet properly, and the new owners who are directing the choices of the foods being served. Both are lacking terribly right now. Perhaps it is just here locally - perhaps it is chain wide. I don't know. I do know that this is no way to continue to stay in business - but perhaps that is exactly what the new owners want.
This troubled us so much tonight that I pushed another article scheduled for publication tonight to a future date and I have delayed writing the article I had intended to write next. I had so much hope for this particular OCB as the manager had been turning things around. As the downward turn has coincided with the corporate change I have to conclude that the two are connected. And I thought I was finished writing poor reviews of Old Country Buffets. Ah well. I am better off eating home that going to OCB - and despite good cooking at home - I really like going out to a buffet for dinner.
Friday, April 10, 2015
Many Improvements at the Levittown, NY Old Country Buffet
I have said many times on this site that the manager and employees can make or break a buffet restaurant and that has been so true at the Levittown, New York Old Country Buffet since it opened many years ago. I have written many times about this buffet - mainly in the negative - but there have been some significant changes over this past winter and they coincide with a change in the general manager.
The general manager who is now at the Levittown OCB had been one of the secondary managers of the Bay Shore, New York Old Country Buffet. He had been there since at least when one of the best buffet managers we have ever encountered (I have written about that manager referring to him as "Mr. Smiley" in past articles) and it is my opinion that under that tutelage this manager, himself, became an excellent manager. He is now at Levittown OCB with his name on the front door as General Manager and he has taken what had been what has been referred to as the "worst OCB" to one that is improvingly good.
I have said in the past that I would never go back to the Levittown OCB, but this rough Long Island winter made traveling to the Bay Shore OCB too difficult and I found myself one night deciding to go back to Levittown. What a surprise when we went inside - first seeing who was the manager and then seeing how things had changed. We have been back numerous times since then and have noted continued improvement. Now, I am not talking about the food selections as that is completely in the hands of Corporate that seems now to completely dictate the menu - and we spoke about this in our last article.
So what is different. For one thing there is a change in the cleanliness of the dining room. The floors (carpets) that were rarely kept clean in the past are now clean. Of course, a busy day can take its toll on the floors around and under the tables of the best buffet restaurants, but an effort is being made to keep these floors now clean.
In the past, food trays would sit empty for hours - and when something came out to replace the empty tray, it would often have a very dis-similar item, for example, rolls for a meat entree. We have seen fairly consistently that if a meat entree runs out, a different meat entree is brought out if the original is not available. We have seen ongoing supervision of the buffet tables and orders sent into the kitchen that items were about to run out and needed replacing. Some items still take a long time to come out, but eventually they do come out - and a few times we have seen another item that is ready come out quickly to that spot while the item to be replaced is being cooked and eventually is back out. This is a big improvement here.
One thing that we immediately noticed when we first came back was that many of the people who had been working here in the past were gone and replaced with workers that actually seemed to care about what they are doing - and made an effort to get their jobs done and communicate clearly with the customers (which had been a big problem here in the past). I often observed in the past that what the Levittown OCB needed was a clean sweep of staff and that is almost what has taken place here. One other thing is that one of the better table staff from Bay Shore was brought here and appears to be (though I do not know this for sure) to be overseeing the rest of the table staff while he is also taking care of tables. Good manager plus good employees equal good buffet.
A good manager needs to be seen in the dining room and around the buffet and that is now happening here. He talks with the guests. He pays attention to what is going on. All so very much needed here and happening now.
Now, is all of this consistent? It is fairly consistent, but I have also observed that it is still somewhat dependent upon this manager being on duty - and, of course, the guy has to have a day or night off sometime. When he is not there, some things slip back - though not completely back. Also when new table people are starting, clearing of tables can get lax - but that now seems to be the exception and not the norm - as it once was. We have been here on extremely busy nights - and while it was an effort for the kitchen to keep up with getting more food out - the table was taken care of as it should be. But there has been the occasional night - our most recent, as a mater of fact was one - when the buffet was not crowded and a new table server was letting the dishes pile up on the table (ours and others) much too high - getting there eventually to clear what had become a tall stack way - but it should never have gotten to that point, especially given the few tables in this section with diners. We had never seen this server working here before - hopefully this server gets the idea, and if not, is gone. I rather hope this employee gets the idea, improves, and stays.
Things are definitely better at the Levittown OCB. We decided one night to go back to Bay Shore and were very disappointed that the food was not being replaced and the selections were less than what we have been experiencing in Levittown.While one time we would have felt going to Levittown was a mistake, on this return to Bay Shore we felt that going there was a mistake.
My hope is that Corporate recognizes how well improved this location is BUT does not take this great manager away and move him elsewhere - which has happened in the past. And secondary management here needs to learn from this man and follow both his manner with customers and attention to what is going on.
Congratulations to the new manager and his staff! Keep up the good work! (And I'll bet there are a lot of our readers who thought that they would never read that here about the Levittown OCB!)
The general manager who is now at the Levittown OCB had been one of the secondary managers of the Bay Shore, New York Old Country Buffet. He had been there since at least when one of the best buffet managers we have ever encountered (I have written about that manager referring to him as "Mr. Smiley" in past articles) and it is my opinion that under that tutelage this manager, himself, became an excellent manager. He is now at Levittown OCB with his name on the front door as General Manager and he has taken what had been what has been referred to as the "worst OCB" to one that is improvingly good.
I have said in the past that I would never go back to the Levittown OCB, but this rough Long Island winter made traveling to the Bay Shore OCB too difficult and I found myself one night deciding to go back to Levittown. What a surprise when we went inside - first seeing who was the manager and then seeing how things had changed. We have been back numerous times since then and have noted continued improvement. Now, I am not talking about the food selections as that is completely in the hands of Corporate that seems now to completely dictate the menu - and we spoke about this in our last article.
So what is different. For one thing there is a change in the cleanliness of the dining room. The floors (carpets) that were rarely kept clean in the past are now clean. Of course, a busy day can take its toll on the floors around and under the tables of the best buffet restaurants, but an effort is being made to keep these floors now clean.
In the past, food trays would sit empty for hours - and when something came out to replace the empty tray, it would often have a very dis-similar item, for example, rolls for a meat entree. We have seen fairly consistently that if a meat entree runs out, a different meat entree is brought out if the original is not available. We have seen ongoing supervision of the buffet tables and orders sent into the kitchen that items were about to run out and needed replacing. Some items still take a long time to come out, but eventually they do come out - and a few times we have seen another item that is ready come out quickly to that spot while the item to be replaced is being cooked and eventually is back out. This is a big improvement here.
One thing that we immediately noticed when we first came back was that many of the people who had been working here in the past were gone and replaced with workers that actually seemed to care about what they are doing - and made an effort to get their jobs done and communicate clearly with the customers (which had been a big problem here in the past). I often observed in the past that what the Levittown OCB needed was a clean sweep of staff and that is almost what has taken place here. One other thing is that one of the better table staff from Bay Shore was brought here and appears to be (though I do not know this for sure) to be overseeing the rest of the table staff while he is also taking care of tables. Good manager plus good employees equal good buffet.
A good manager needs to be seen in the dining room and around the buffet and that is now happening here. He talks with the guests. He pays attention to what is going on. All so very much needed here and happening now.
Now, is all of this consistent? It is fairly consistent, but I have also observed that it is still somewhat dependent upon this manager being on duty - and, of course, the guy has to have a day or night off sometime. When he is not there, some things slip back - though not completely back. Also when new table people are starting, clearing of tables can get lax - but that now seems to be the exception and not the norm - as it once was. We have been here on extremely busy nights - and while it was an effort for the kitchen to keep up with getting more food out - the table was taken care of as it should be. But there has been the occasional night - our most recent, as a mater of fact was one - when the buffet was not crowded and a new table server was letting the dishes pile up on the table (ours and others) much too high - getting there eventually to clear what had become a tall stack way - but it should never have gotten to that point, especially given the few tables in this section with diners. We had never seen this server working here before - hopefully this server gets the idea, and if not, is gone. I rather hope this employee gets the idea, improves, and stays.
Things are definitely better at the Levittown OCB. We decided one night to go back to Bay Shore and were very disappointed that the food was not being replaced and the selections were less than what we have been experiencing in Levittown.While one time we would have felt going to Levittown was a mistake, on this return to Bay Shore we felt that going there was a mistake.
My hope is that Corporate recognizes how well improved this location is BUT does not take this great manager away and move him elsewhere - which has happened in the past. And secondary management here needs to learn from this man and follow both his manner with customers and attention to what is going on.
Congratulations to the new manager and his staff! Keep up the good work! (And I'll bet there are a lot of our readers who thought that they would never read that here about the Levittown OCB!)
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